FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Porsche AG made its stock market debut on Thursday, valued at about 75 billion euros ($72.45 billion) after Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) listed shares on the ‘top end of the range, face the turbulent market conditions.
The bumper listing, which is expected to raise about 19.5 billion euros ($19 billion), comes as instability in European markets has deterred other share sales by carmakers, including luxury brands.
The sale values Porsche AG close to the market capitalization of its parent Volkswagen, which is worth about 84 billion euros, and puts it ahead of rivals such as Ferrari ( RACE.MI ).
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The books closed on Wednesday in what is one of Europe’s biggest IPOs and Germany’s second since Deutsche Telekom ( DTEGn.DE ) made its debut in 1996, at the top end of the 76 .50-82.50 euros that he announced at the beginning of this month.
The shares opened at €84.00 each and traded at €82.88 at 07:33 GMT.
Shares in Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE) fell 5.7% in early Frankfurt trade. Volkswagen shares fell 4.9% in early Frankfurt trading.
Continental European companies have raised the smallest amount this year since the 2009 global financial crisis at $44 billion, of which just $4.5 billion came from IPOs, according to data from Refinitiv.
Volkswagen has said that market volatility was precisely why fund managers with money to invest badly needed a stable and attractive value like Porsche AG.
“Porsche was and is the pearl of the Volkswagen Group,” said Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, chief investment officer at fund manager Capitell.
“The IPO has now made very, very transparent the value that the market brings to Porsche. This, of course, also has a positive effect on Volkswagen shareholders.”
Faced with tens of billions in costs for a radical shift to electric mobility and software, Volkswagen executives had long considered listing Porsche, a move executives hoped would raise much-needed funds and increase Volkswagen’s own value.
The Porsche and Piech families, in turn, will consolidate their control of the automaker with 25%, plus one ordinary share – with voting rights – in Porsche AG, effectively giving them a blocking minority in the brand namesake
In the course of the initial public offering, up to 113,875,000 non-voting preferred shares will be sold to investors.
Porsche against rivals
($1 = 1.0352 euros)
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Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr; written by Victoria Waldersee and Matthias Williams; Edited by Hugh Lawson, Richard Pullin and Jane Merriman
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Emma-Victoria Farr
Thomson Reuters
European M&A reporting with previous experience at Mergermarket, Bloomberg The Daily Telegraph and Deutsche Presse Agentur.